Know Your Capitol Hill Block Party Bands: Friday Mainstagers

The Capitol Hill Block Party is an annual music festival that takes over the heart of a neighborhood in Seattle called Capitol Hill this weekend (it is not, despite its name and annual grumbling from certain quarters, some sort of free get-to-know-your-neighbors potluck). Inside the fences wrapping around Pike Street from Broadway to Twelfth, the main drag, most of the intersecting side streets, and a good number of the bars, clubs, and restaurants play host to touring and local bands, politically and commercially inspired booths, and a beer garden or two. Late this year, organizers worked their magic on the city and expanded the festival to a full three days.

With the summer finally promising a warm weekend amenable to hours on the pavement with a few thousand other residents, tourists, and music fans, it’s hardly surprising that incredibly affordable tickets to festival well stocked with high profile acts are becoming a hot commodity. Over the last few days, discounted three day passes sold out. Single day tickets are flying, too: right now Friday tickets can’t be purchased online store. However, a large handful of tickets were still available for in-person sales at Everyday Music. So if you’ve been procrastinating on planning, you’d better cross your fingers, grab some cash, and hope that there are a few left when you arrive.

After the jump, a quick survey of three of the mainstage bands causing a run on tickets.

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At the very top of the mainstage heap is MGMT. Given that they just played to a packed hillside of Sasquatchers who danced for their lives during a borderline melancholic “Time To Pretend”, it’s not entirely surprising that Friday looks to be the fastest to sell out.

That said, it’s worth noting that the pack of teens who went wild for the admittedly irresistible 2k8 hit seemed mostly confused while the cooly detached band played the rest of this year’s Congratulations and other less radio friendly tracks from Oracular Spectacular.

As one of the seemingly few who unabashedly loves Congratulations, I sincerely encourage you to take a moment or two to prepare for their set. Giving the disc an open minded spin or at least watch some of their videos (the one above, for “Flash Delirium” gives you a pretty good sense of their odd, arty, throwback, dreamlike intentions) to decide whether you like it enough to squeeze yourself onto an overcrowded street just to find out if they decide to include “Kids” in their setlist. It’s a great song, but they wrote it a hundred blogyears ago; so cut them a break if they can’t bear to trot it out for your enjoyment.

 

I doubt that I ever understood what Carles was writing about in his posts about the Electro War, but I always kind of imagined Brooklyn’s Yeasayer as one of that great fictional conflicts survivors. In their first album, they provided cautiously optimistic dispatches from the year 2080, when all that was left for bands were dusty warehouses, rudimentarily fashioned percussion instruments, a few stray synths, and plenty of traded yelps.

Now, though, with Odd Blood, they’ve polished up their act and embraced the hell out of production values. As seen above, they’re still just a little bit mystical, but they’re not ashamed to throw some shiny gemstones and goofy theatrics in the service of getting crowds to cut loose. Expect light shows, well coordinated vocal tradeoffs, and plenty of bros having seriously enlightening moments under the evening sky.

 

Everyone who writes about Holy Fuck is pretty much compelled to say that with a name like that a band better bring the goods to back it up. And they most certainly do. Almost entirely lyric-free, the band makes driving electronic music that feels organic, partially because they seem to favor using toys, 35 mm film synchronizers, and other live instrumentation to laptops. Behind a table of pedals, Graham Walsh is an intense maestro, conjuring a blissfully intense soundtrack for a pulsing dance floor. 

If you want to experience them indoors and as headliners (you do), they’re also playing a pre-party warm up at the Crocodile on Thursday. The show, with Obits and Unnatural Helpers, is free, provided you RSVP, share your info with Filter and Dickies, and show up before the venue hits capacity.